About Free-Loan Teaching Resources

The National Gallery of Art's Division of Education provides slide teaching programs, multimedia programs, videocassettes, CD ROMs, and DVDs to millions of viewers each year. These programs are intended to foster awareness of the visual arts and make Gallery collections accessible to a broad audience beyond the Gallery's walls. They are circulated free of charge to educational institutions, community groups, and individuals throughout the United States.

Our Loan Programs meet national standards in the visual arts for kindergarten through grade 12. A variety of artists, subjects, techniques, and styles are examined. Many programs contain suggestions for related activities and questions designed to stimulate discussion of the art and artists, of cultural and historical issues.

Slide teaching programs are designed to permit flexibility in use. We encourage you to review them, select those images and information that are most useful to your teaching needs, and to adapt and shape the materials to your specific instructional objectives.

Direct Loans
This option is intended for anyone's personal or individual use. Homeschool parents and teachers are among our newest group of borrowers. The process resembles that of a lending library:

Cycle: Request --> Booking --> Shipping --> Presentation --> Return --> Inspection

Requests
Be sure to request programs well in advance of your planned presentation date. It is important that requests are received at least one month prior to anticipated use. Each request is booked for the desired date if possible; otherwise, programs are booked for the borrowers' alternate date.

Loan materials may be requested online. Search the online catalogue by curriculum topic, subject, artist, or format and add desired programs to your cart. Alternatively, you may fax or mail a printable order form. See how to order for complete details.

You may also request a printed catalogue.

Confirmation
You will receive a confirmation by mail noting our shipping date and your return date for each program scheduled for your use.

Loan Period
All direct loans may be kept for two business weeks (or up to 9 months depending on program type); because programs are mailed well in advance, the actual loan period is frequently longer. We ask that you return program materials promptly.

The borrower pays only for return postage (media mail rate).

Affiliate Loans
This alternative is intended for large organizations that can circulate programs to extensive audiences—such as school systems, instructional resource centers, museums and art centers, health care facilities, libraries, and public and instructional television stations. Such organizations act as "affiliate distributors" in order to provide their audiences more immediate access to our free-loan extension programs. The selected programs are placed on long-term loan—usually three years and renewable—and are made available for noncommercial television presentation. This option is intended only for organizations that support active distribution systems.

Organizations with noncommercial television capability may request permission for broadcast and/or duplication of selected videocassette programs from video master tapes, provided after completion of a special written license agreement. Programs may not be broadcast, reproduced, or transferred to another medium or format without special license from the National Gallery of Art. Requests for permission to broadcast or reproduce programs must be submitted in writing.

If you wish to participate as an affiliate distributor, or if you would like to broadcast or reproduce programs, please contact us to request an application.